The invention relates to domestic mixers intended especially for crushing food materials immersed in a liquid.
A known domestic mixer comprises a motor unit arranged to be held by hand and having in its lower part a rotatable driver for rotation at high speed. A mixing foot is mounted on the said lower part of the motor unit and encloses a vertical shaft, the upper end of the shaft being coupled to the said driver. The lower end of the shaft carries a mixing screw located under a cover provided at the lower end of the foot.
Such known mixers are mainly used for preparing vegetable soups. For this purpose, after the vegetables have been cooked in water, the soup is homogenised by operating the mixer directly for a few moments in the cooking vessel. During this operation particles of vegetables immersed in the water are brought in contact with the mixing screw and are thus crushed.
Known mixers of this type are often dangerous because it is possible to rotate the screw outside the liquid and the user can then inadvertently bring his fingers into contact with the rotating screw.
To avoid this danger, it has been proposed to extend the lateral wall of the cover downwardly to form a protective guard around the screw, and to make in this lateral wall recesses which will allow the vegetables to come into contact with the mixing screw. However, if the recesses are too narrow, some pieces of vegetables will be too bulky to pass through these recesses. On the other hand, if these recesses are wide enough to allow practically all pieces of vegetables to pass through, they will also permit too free an access to the screw and the danger reappears. For example, it is customary to reduce the protective guard to two or three appendages which are spaced peripherally from one another and which at the same time constitute supports arranged to rest against the bottom of the vessel containing the liquid and to ensure thereby that the screw is spaced from this bottom it will be appreciated that such appendages provide little protection for the fingers of the user.